This summer, I took part in an amazing conference hosted by CRU Inner City. It was called the Creating Options Together Conference and took place here in Minneapolis. The aim of the conference was, “To come together to declare God’s glory, to lift up and empower the church, and to demonstrate the power of the gospel to create options for those in poverty…fresh options that address real needs.” It was humbling to share a stage with noted leaders like Dr. John Perkins and Dr. Carl Ellis. It was also incredibly meaningful to spend time hearing from new leaders (new to me) like Pastor Adam Edgerly and the brilliant Karen Ellis. I was a speaker and presenter, but I learned much more than I could have ever imagined!

I have realized over the last few years that I have some pretty unique and varied groups of friends and colleagues. I also realized that they often don’t interact with each other. That means that the conversations that I have with one group of friends doesn’t always get carried over to another group of friends. It happens sometimes, but it’s not guaranteed. Additionally, I’m hardly ever present with friend group A and friend group B at the same time. I’m constantly looking for ways to bridge that gap. Hopefully, this blog has been and continues to become one of those ways.

To that end, in my next few blog posts, I’ll share some of my messages from the Creating Options Together Conference 2014. I hope that it sparks a dialogue between my different groups of friends and leads to some deeper connections.

The title of this particular talk was #GospelChallenge: Addressing Racial Strife as a Threat to Your Ministry.

Here’s Part 1 of 3…I’d love to hear your thoughts!

(July 2014 – Bethel University Underground)

Good Afternoon,

Friends, you may have noticed a social media trend over the last few months. I’m referring to something called the #GospelChallenge. #GospelChallenge is where one person is “called out” by another and given 24 hours to record a personal video singing a gospel song. The videos were everywhere, and some of them were excellent!

Unfortunately, for every one singer with actual talent…There were 100’s upon 100’s of singers with voices that only their mothers could love…There were others with voices that were made for sign language or for a tightly sealed, soundproof shower…There were many others that gave new interpretation to the verse, “Jesus Wept!” As funny as some of these videos were and as inspiring as some the others were, I wasn’t invited here today to talk about THAT kind of gospel challenge but about another reality that we are called to be aware of and respond to IF we really desire to see the good news of Jesus Christ reach the inner city, take root, and bring about kingdom transformation.

Later this week, each of us will leave the comfort of this conference and head back into our communities, cities, and neighborhoods, and there, waiting on us, will be a troubling reality. Waiting for us in each of our cities is a challenge that is as old as this nation itself and is entrenched in the fabric of this great experiment that we call America. I’m talking about racial strife, the struggle that exists in our past and even today, that makes it very difficult for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds to connect, trust, and grow together. Friends, I wish that I could talk about this racial strife from a strictly historical & sociological perspective and say that this is an issue that exists strictly in society. I wish that I could stand here and describe this as a situation where the Church is poised to step in and correct what is wrong, but the reality is that when it comes to racial strife, American society and the American church share matching scars. These are matching, ugly scars that cannot simply be ignored.

The reality is that when it comes to racial strife, the church, has “dirty hands,” and those dirty hands stand as a challenge to the Gospel.

At best, the church in America has been “impotent” when it comes to being an effective agent for healing racial strife. At its worst, the church in America has been an active accomplice, a tool, used to create and maintain racial strife and artificial racial divides. Even without looking too hard, the very people that we would seek to engage and minister to in urban communities, ESPECIALLY BLACK MEN, can see that the church has not always been a trustworthy institution.

So what exactly am I talking about when I refer to our #GospelChallenge?

When I say that we have a #GospelChallenge, I’m saying that our history, even our present existence as the church, has become a stumbling block, an obstacle to the spread of the gospel among the lost and hurting in urban areas. I contend that we cannot simply ignore the church’s history and expect it to simply go away. Instead, I propose that must we repent of our brokenness and intentionally rededicate ourselves to the work of reconciliation. Doing so is a critical first step towards creating space for the healing of racial strife, and it must be a part of any Christ-centered strategy for seeing the Gospel reach every corner of every urban area in America.

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Question: Would you agree that racial strife has been a “stumbling block” for the American Church? I’d love to hear your thoughts and explanations. As always, feel free to disagree!

Last year, I was contacted by a guy named Andy from the Pacific Northwest and asked if I’d be interested in contributing to a book that he was working on. The book he described was focused on the two topics that I write/think most frequently about, faith and fatherhood. After a quick google search, I realized that Andy was not a hacker or a serial killer, that he had an epic beard, and that this was a real book project. Of course I had to be a part of it!

The Father Factor project is part of the I SPEAK FOR MYSELF book series, published in partnership with White Cloud Press. The book explores the intersection between faith and fatherhood, which is core to who I am. The book contains forty essays by forty men all under the age of forty. We represent a wide variety of Christian faith perspectives: Methodist, Presbyterian, Quaker, Mennonite, Pentecostal, Baptist, Church of God, United Church of Christ—and a whole host of different ethnicities: Korean, Mexican, Pacific Islander, Egyptian, Chinese, African American, and Caucasian. We represent all sorts of professions – ministers, professors, a real estate agent, an actor, nonprofit leaders, stay-at-home dads, and a call center representative. We can be found in cities as far apart as Honolulu, Hawaii and Paris, France, and many all points in between. Each of us shares a compelling story about faith and fatherhood…The finished work is amazing!!!

I’d highly recommend the book for your personal library and for small group discussions. The website is here…Take a look around and take advantage of a great discounted price between now and October 13th!

Thanks to everyone who helped bring this project into being, and I look forward to all of you engaging on some level with the book!

If you’ve ever created anything, led anything, done anything worthwhile, consider this quote:

“It’s not the critic who counts. It’s not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled. Credit belongs to the man who really was in the arena, his face marred by dust, sweat, and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs to come short and short again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. It is the man who actually strives to do the deeds, who knows the great enthusiasm and knows the great devotion, who spends himself on a worthy cause, who at best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement. And, who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and cruel souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” (Theodore Roosevelt) —

Overwhelming dude language aside, President Roosevelt was 100% on point. There will ALWAYS be sideline critics, contrary voices of people who are not in the game at all. When you’re not in the game, you have tons of free time to pick apart the work of those who are. If you’re battling these voices, don’t let fear of what they might say or do keep you from putting it all on the line everyday. Don’t allow yourself to be consumed by desires to please sideline critics. Instead, refocus on the assignment before you. Dare greatly and be willing to fail on the way to success. When all else fails, dare to turn to these critics and invite them into the game. The best way to silence a lazy critic is to invite them to join you in doing what needs to be done. Chances are that they will decline and soon disappear. Then, you can get back to work and turn your attention back to the people (and things) that really matter!

Question: What advice would you give a person who is struggling because of sideline critics?

Today is a big one in my family. Our daughter, Taylor, turns 3 years old! Where has the time gone?

It seems like just last week that Shanequa and I walked cautiously to our car, bringing home our firstborn child from the hospital. We live about 10 minutes from the hospital, but it took us about 20 minutes to get home because I was driving so slow! She still makes fun of me for getting upset at the other drivers who were traveling at the speed limit. Didn’t they know that we had precious cargo in that car?

Somehow, that was three years ago. I honestly have no idea where the time went.

As we move into year three of this parenting life, Shanequa and I sat down to think about the road ahead for us and for our firstborn. Somehow, that turned into a short list of prayers. I thought that I’d share a few of those prayers with you, our friends.

That Taylor would know God, personally. We don’t take it for granted that Taylor will know and love God simply because of our faith in Christ or because of my vocation. Our constant prayer is that God would pursue her and that she would say, “Yes,” over and over again!

That Taylor would know her self-worth…”you is smart, you is kind, you is important.” The Help brilliantly reminded us of the responsibility that we carry as parents to help shape our daughter’s self-image and self-worth. Every day, we see reminders in society of young women who never realized their value. We pray and work daily that Taylor will have no confusion about such things.

That Taylor would find wonder everywhere and grow daily through discovery.There is a big, beautiful world out there. As we teach Taylor to know and love God, we will be sure to have her experience the beauty of his handiwork. A bird singing in a tree. An ocean that seems to never end. Vast mountains and massive valleys. We pray that she would have countless WOW moments as she grows. May she forever be fascinated!

That Taylor would pursue her passions. I can already see the seedlings of this prayer coming to be. Like her mother, Taylor is a very strong-willed young lady. (Smiley Face) Like her father, Taylor has an opinion about everything! (Wink) Our prayer is that God will use these strengths for his glory and that Taylor will work passionately toward the causes of her day. Big or small, we pray that she would give her all to something beyond her.

That Taylor would care deeply for others. Whatever her passions may be, we pray that a part of it would bring her to a place of caring deeply for others, especially the poor and hurting people of our world. We pray that she would not be able to ignore the needs of others, even if she tried. May she have a greater sense of the collective than either of her parents did.

Honestly, our prayers could be summarized into one simple prayer: Dear God, please help our daughter to love you, to love others, and to live a life that pleases you. Little else matters. Little else will last.

Have you ever been discouraged? Unless you have some serious antisocial tendencies, I’d guess that you have been discouraged at one point or another in your life. For those of us who serve in ministry, discouragement is very real and present danger. The very nature of our work makes us more susceptible to discouragement because we are often so heavily invested in the lives of others. The average person can go out of their way to live insulated lives, shielded and protected from “mess,” but not us. The very nature of our calling seems to demand that we give others access to our lives, while at the same time wading into the murky waters of their lives. Can you imagine a pastor who refused to care about others? How about a minister who openly expressed her lack of concern for the condition of those around her? Wouldn’t she risk being called a sociopath? Nobody wants to be called a sociopath…so we dive in! Loving, trusting, forgiving, all the while believing that this is the God-honoring thing to do!

Discouragement comes in when even your most sacrificial efforts fall flat, and the expectations that you had of something or someone bite you in the butt. It happens to every minister that I’ve ever known…that’s not the point. The issue that I’d like to wrestle with is the proper Christian response to discouragement. Do we curl into a ball, lick our wounds, and whine? Worst than that, do we lash out at those responsible? Both of these are pretty damaging responses that will ultimately do more harm than good. How, then, do you deal with discouragement in ministry?

Josh Griffin, one of my favorite youth pastors/bloggers shared some thoughts that I’d like to pass along. You can read the full article here, but here’s my recap with some personal thoughts:

Identify the Source of the Discouragement – What is the perceived root of the discouragement and what is its real cause? It could be deeper than any isolated incident. Discouragement can show up after “mountaintop experiences” as someone seeks to bring you back to earth, set you straight, or “read you,” as my people sometimes say; however, in most cases, I’ve been able to trace my own bouts with discouragement to something deeper than an incident. The truth is that I like to be liked. I like and respect people, and I expect them to like and respect me back. When that does not happen, I’m often caught off guard. I’ve come to accept that the majority of the discouragement that I deal with in my life comes out of misguided expectations of others and some insecurity on my part. Being so, each period of discouragement that I face is now seen as a chance to confront my own issues, as well as the issues of others that may be involved.

Employ the Appropriate Response – Even in discouragement, I am accountable for my response. My response will say volumes about who I believe God to be and who I am in God. In every encounter, I have the option to be either the crazy person driven by carnal emotions or I can bear witness to the Spirit’s power to overcome my fallen nature. In my discouragement, I have learned to cry out to God who encourages my heart, grants me wisdom and strength through His Word, and sends me back into the game.

Search the Criticism for Truth and Grow From It – If God can speak through a donkey, surely he can use the harsh words of another human being to reveal truth to us. In the course of facing the discouragement, take the time to search for God’s voice in the criticism. Is there something tucked away behind the ugly words that could help you become a better leader/minister/pastor? Be courageous enough to sit in the criticism and mine for nuggets that might be valuable to your future. It may be uncomfortable, even humbling, but it can help produce a better you in the end.

Discouragement is not new. Discouragement will be with us for as long as we live. Jesus knew this and told his disciples, “In this world, you will have trouble.” That has not changed for the modern believer. The encouragement, though, is that Jesus also said in that same breath, “But take heart! I have overcome the world!” Although discouragement is real and painful, we find encouragement in knowing that Jesus is victorious over discouragement in the same way that He is victorious over sin, death, and the grave. In Christ, our grief becomes joy.

To know and believe this is the key to dealing with any and all discouragement!